


Wonderland Wakeups

by Merfilly



Series: Slade Verse [4]
Category: DCU Animated
Genre: Alternate Universe, Mirror Universe, Multi, Star-crossed
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-09-17
Updated: 2012-09-17
Packaged: 2017-11-14 10:05:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 15,333
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/514074
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Merfilly/pseuds/Merfilly
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Deathstroke the Terminator awakens without all of his memories or reasoning to find his mortal enemy Black Kestrel has invaded his home... and then it gets worse.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Wonderland Wakeups

**Author's Note:**

> Begun in 2006 and revised many times, this is not backdated due to not being able to figure out which revision date applies best.
> 
> Characters based on Timm-Verse JLU and Teen Titans GO! with comics to fill out backgrounds.

The alert was coming from the medical bay, prompting Alexi himself to go and learn what had come to pass. When he saw the various members of the staff recovering themselves, and Fries lying on the floor, he began to get a cold feeling in his guts. Striding over to their preeminent doctor, he reached a hand down while still scanning the room.

"Manta Ray, initiate lockdown. There has been an attack in the med bay," he called over the communications link.

"Acknowledge, but likely too late, Alexi. There was just a report of a guard being overpowered and a jet being taken."

"Pull surveillance," Alexi said. "We need to know what happened, and Fries is unconscious."

"On it," the other man said, cutting communications. Alexi then picked Fries up, getting him to a bed. A quick inspection told him the doctor would be fine, but the power behind the blow he had taken was staggering.

"Anyone see what happened?" Alexi asked. One nurse, with more presence of mind than the others, pointed to the lab that only Fries used, causing Alexi’s guts to clench again. He walked over and peered in, seeing mass destruction of the lab’s devices, and an ominously empty cryo tube. "Manta Ray, is it Wilson?" he asked back over the channel.

"Yes, Alexi, it is." The disbelief in Manta’s voice was staggering.

"Issue an alert for all heroes to steer clear of him. And get me her location." Alexi started running down to the operations center. "We’re going to need her, to bring him to his senses."

"Copy that."

`~`~`~`~`

When Alexi arrived at the operations center he found the current council hard at work, warning the various law enforcement agencies off of confronting the dangerous man now set loose. Their prearranged story was going over well, that the man had been subjected to psychometric drugs and that CHAMP would pull him in and take care of it. Slade Wilson was unlikely to hurt anyone, unless he felt threatened. Alexi took his seat and punched in the location Manta Ray gave him, waiting for the videophone to connect.

"Yes?" The face of a beautiful young woman filled the screen, her long white hair free around her shoulders. "Alexi Luthor."

"Yes." He marveled at how strikingly like the father this girl was, at least physically. On more personal levels, the girl left him irritated most of the time. "I need to speak to Black Canary."

"Hold one moment; I’ll get her." She walked away from the screen, and he vaguely heard her calling the woman to the phone, calling her ‘mother’. In just a few moments, the petite vigilante was standing in front of the screen, her eyes slightly cool at first. Then she saw it was Alexi, and she relaxed into a full smile for him.

"Alexi, this is a surprise," she began, before seriously reading his features. "Nor is it a social call."

"He woke up, Canary. And just as Fries warned, the reintroduction of the serum has affected his thoughts." He watched her square her shoulders.

"What method of transportation did he take?" The woman had become as professional in her dealings as the man she had waited for, Alexi decided.

"Jet."

"Then you won’t need to worry about it." She drew in a deep breath. "Rose and I will handle this. He’ll be coming here, no matter how severely strained the serum has made his mind."

"Are you sure you don’t want help?" Alexi reached out to her with his words, but she merely smiled with that cold edge.

"We have the situation under control." She turned off the videophone then.

"Alexi, how did she get like that?" Star Sapphire asked him, having come close to see how their ally was faring.

"Too many years of waiting for the only man she loves to wake up, and being told that he might not be in his right mind when he did," Alexi murmured. "She’s been running Searchers, Inc. That is a hard task to handle while training Wilson’s heir."

"I worked with her last year, to bring in Barracuda." Manta Ray shook his head. "She’s become so much like Slade, I almost thought we should code name her 'Lady Terminator' instead of Slade’s daughter."

"And yet she still does not use weapons, so she’s not completely lost in the loneliness." Circe had entered while they were talking. "I have projected Slade’s path, and he is on his way toward the likely place of his home."

"All we can do is wait, then." Alexi despised waiting, though, and would not relax until he knew what had happened.

`~`~`~`~`

Black Canary looked at the young woman leaning in the doorway. "Have Wintergreen prepare first aid supplies," she said.

"You really think he’s enough out of his mind to attack us?"

"We both read his notes, listened to Wintergreen’s account of what happened to both Slade and Adeline Kane. Fries believes I only escaped the psychoses because Alexi introduced the serum through nanobots." Canary moved toward the courtyard. "Stay out of sight when you come back, Rose; we may need an element of surprise."

"Yes, mother."

Canary did not have too long to reflect over the plans she had prepared some time ago, when Wintergreen had first told her of the possibility of insanity. She heard the whine of the jet come almost directly overhead, as she reached up to loosely draw her blonde mane into a ponytail. The jet came down and powered off, before Canary walked out of the shelter of the doorway. She was fully visible, and in Terminator’s current frame of mind, she was the enemy. She was prepared for his first attack, using his momentum against him in expert fashion. The time that he had been frozen had allowed her to train until the enhancements he enjoyed were second nature to her. She moved between the tenths of a second, it seemed, anticipating and dodging, seeking only to bring the man down long enough for the serum-induced madness to wear off.

"Slade, listen to me," she said, firmly. "I am not your enemy!" She had to take a staggering blow in order to get that fully out, but then the fight changed, as Rose entered on behalf of the woman she called mother. The two women were well matched, exchanging the role of parry and dodge between them to hold off Slade’s strikes.

"Father!" Rose shouted, her face set as grimly as his was. "You must find control!"

A curious ‘whuff’ sound reached all their ears, before Slade stumbled, reaching for his back. He fell, prostrate on the flagstones, as Wintergreen was revealed with a tranquilizer gun.

"I thought it more prudent, Miss Rose." He indicated the fallen man. "I doubt your words could penetrate the adrenaline."

"We need to get him inside," Canary said, regretting the need to tranquilize her lover. "And then, either you or Wintergreen needs to be with him when he wakes." It hurt her to know that right now, all he could see when he saw her was the woman that had caused the deaths of his two sons.

"Mother, he will remember himself." Rose embraced the smaller woman gently, their common bond of love for Slade having turned to a full-fledged family bond over the years. They then turned to the task of getting the man inside, to his own room, to continue their plan for bringing him to himself.

`~`~`~`~`

Alexi turned away from the videophone with a sigh some time later. "He arrived at his home, but is still delirious. Canary said she would call with more information later." Circe moved to rub his shoulders, wondering how long the genius would continue to take the burden of leadership alone. Perhaps they were finally growing closer to the time of the mysterious blonde that would be Alexi's perfect companion, the one in his visions.

"I have confidence in our friends," she said. "And something to interest you." She could feel him barely allowing himself to relax to her massage. "We’ve had some anomalous readings that may indicate where the Labs moved their operations to. I’ve had Manta Ray looking them over."

"Good. He’s very adept at sorting through the various scan reports." Alexi stood up. "I’ll go check on that. You stay and wait for Canary to call back."

"Of course."

`~`~`~`~`

Wintergreen stepped out of the master bedroom, looking ever so slightly disturbed, but also relieved.

"Miss Dinah," he said, looking at the young woman he had taken in on Slade’s word, and come to love like a daughter, almost. "He is awake, and he seems calm." The fact he used the word 'seems' was enough to warn her to be careful. "I’ll tend to your other responsibilities."

"Perhaps seeing Rose first would be best." At Wintergreen’s negative, she sighed. "He wants to know why Kestrel is in his home."

"I’ve explained you are not Kestrel, but his memories have not fully, hmm, thawed out." The wry touch of a smile on his lips gave Canary one in turn, before she braced her nerves and went into the master bedroom. So many nights, both she and Rose had come in here to sleep, wracked by the misery of knowing Slade lived and yet could not be home with them. Now, the lights were low, and he was home, but he did not remember their affair.

"Dinah Lance," came his voice, as cold as when she had first met him, a stranger in a strange land.

"Slade." She kept her own voice neutral, walking over to the chair in front of the fireplace, so he could see her. She almost felt naked, the way his one eye searched every detail of her face, took in the lines of her body. He did nothing to set her mind at ease, and she had learned to control her impulsive emotions during the long wait for him.

"Wintergreen says you live here, you train my daughter, and that you are from an alien dimension where you were an erstwhile hero." His complete mastery of his emotions allowed him to catch the tiny indications that he was affecting her.

"I also help run your business," she murmured. "Among other things." She tried not to dwell on the 'other things'. Time enough for him to learn that when he was fully well.

"Tell me how this came to pass," he commanded her. She drew her chin up defiantly, shaking her head.

"No, Slade. If you’d just take the time to rest, to open your mind to everything, you’d know." She turned to leave him, tears stinging her eyes. "Rose will be in to see you. I have business." She made it three steps before he grabbed her by her wrist, spinning her back to him.

"You play a dangerous game by refusing me," he hissed, his grip bruising to a normal woman. When she broke his grip with little effort, he stared at her again, vaguely remembering the fight when he first arrived. "You are like me." This made him recalculate likely possibilities to explain the changes.

"You saved my life by giving Alexi your blood to use for me!" Her voice was low and harsh. "I’ve used that gift ever since, in your name!" She stared up at him in desperate hurt. "Slade, give yourself time to remember, before you hurt someone that does not deserve it!"

"Yourself, I suppose?"

"I’m not important here," she said irritably. "Except the role I play in your family." Now she did stalk out, going to her own series of rooms, given to her when Rose had accepted her into their life. She was relieved when he did not follow her.

"Momma?" A sleepy young boy, his blue eyes barely open. "Who is here? How long will I stay in our rooms this time?" His jet-black hair had a single white lock in it, but his face was stamped with who his father was. Canary sat down on her bed, getting her son to climb up with her.

"Hopefully not long. Maybe never again, once the new person in the house and I talk." She stroked his hair. "And you know Rose will come see you every day, until I get it all straightened out."

"I love Rose." He smiled before yawning sleepily. "She promised to spar with me tomorrow, when she brought me dinner."

"Then you need to get your sleep, my little man. She’ll be in with the sunrise, if she plans to spar with you." Canary laid the boy down on her own pillows, smiling at him. "You just be careful and remember you’re in the inside gym. I don’t want to have to replace windows again."

"Yes, Momma." He pulled a second pillow of hers to his chest, soon falling into sleep. She watched him a long moment, her eyes sad as she worried over the consequences of Slade’s return to life. Her love for the man had not diminished in the least. Raising his son, and fine tuning his daughter’s training had kept her faith strong over the past seven years, but if Slade did not remember the relationship, would he accept the son neither of them had foreseen?

`~`~`~`~`

"Again!" Canary made Rose throw herself into a full out battle frenzy, using both swords against Canary’s gauntlets. The two women sparred harder than usual, driven to find perfection rather than dwell on the enigma of Slade’s memory. Rose fought just a step below lethal force, unable to penetrate Canary’s defense by much.

From a balcony above, Slade Wilson could see the pair, could watch the sheer beauty of two perfect combatants. He could not quite make out their conversation, but he could see the subtle deference Rose kept making to the older woman. Just by reading their body language, Slade would have decided they were either mother/child or older/younger sisters. He was beginning to be bothered by the holes in his memory concerning the blonde, and just what their status to one another was. He continued to watch until Wintergreen walked out, and then returned to his room to consider.

When Canary had disarmed her of one blade, they halted, as per their normal routine. Just about then, Wintergreen cleared his throat. "It is Mister Luthor. A mission that requires you, Miss Dinah." He indicated the study that opened onto the courtyard, the one she used to coordinate her business and her superheroics.

"Mother, perhaps I could handle it in your place?" Rose suggested, knowing she was worried about leaving just now, with her son’s place so nebulous. "My brother will need you, even once Father does remember. He’s never met the man, and we’ve kept him from society in general, all his life."

"No, Rose. I appreciate the offer, but it would be best for your father and you to renew acquaintance first." She sighed. "I’ll slip away, and take your brother to Teth. He enjoys spending time with his godfather, and no one in Kahndaq has ever pried into his parentage." She smiled warmly at her foster daughter. "Just keep Slade distracted while I leave. I’ll use the jet he ‘borrowed’."

"He will love my brother," Rose told her again, something they had discussed before.

"But will he accept me into his life again?"

`~`~`~`~`

Alexi met the woman at the vehicle bay, smiling at her as she gripped his hands warmly. "We’ve missed you here," he rumbled.

"I’ve just had too much to do, with Searchers, and all the training Rose needs. She’s become a very capable fighter and agent, while learning the business," Canary said. They walked from the vehicles to the operations center. "The brief said you might have found the Star Labs clandestine operations?"

"Yes. Ever since they went underground three years ago, we’ve been hunting them, as you know. Their attempts to take DNA samples from so many of us left us worried for their plans." He opened the door for her, still unable to resist the gallant efforts she seemed to unconsciously inspire.

"Yes." Those efforts, as well as the efforts of people seeking revenge on Slade had been tantamount to her decision to hide her son’s existence from all but Black Adam, outside of her household. "So, we are going in full assault or infiltration?" She was accustomed to both type missions now.

"I will take a team in for the full assault," Alexi told her. "You will go in under the radar, to find what you can, while they are distracted." He laid his hand on her arm. "I’m sorry to pull you from your home at this time, but you are the only one that has the skill that I trust." She nodded, her eyes stormy.

"It could take him some time to remember everything, and I should not pin any hope to what he will decide about me." Canary squared her shoulders. "Let’s get this show on the road, Alexi. They will figure out we’re coming all too fast."

`~`~`~`~`

Alexi wished he would put more stock in the seeming innocent observations Canary made. Sure enough, the facility they were getting ready to invade in international waters was heavily armed and on guard. He called orders to his team, made up of Frost, Humanite, Zoom, and Grodd. They dropped below effective weapons range and landed on the mobile sea platform, doing as much damage to the weaponry as possible. He could only hope they were more than enough distraction to let Canary get in and learn all she could.

`~`~`~`~`

If he could have seen her, he would have been a bit more worried. She had chosen a sea approach, wearing full SCUBA, with intent of being picked up in the withdrawal from the lab. Instead, she discovered the lab had hired mercenaries to watch their underwater approaches. They bore the seal of Barracuda, the exiled Atlantean king, which told her she needed to be very careful. Slipping past their sensors was the easy part; evading their superior senses in the water would take finesse.

`~`~`~`~`

Up above the water, some of those mercenaries were making themselves known, using wetsuits designed to let them breath air. The small team was heavily outnumbered, but Alexi set about evening the odds. He triggered a remote, and tiny little spheres, modeled on the technical specs exchanged years ago with Mr. Terrific, came into play, setting off little EMPs every where they made contact. The circuitry in the guns, the suits, the floating lab itself started to malfunction.

`~`~`~`~`

Now Canary saw the distraction working, as more mercs went above to see what had happened. She found an access hatch, and bypassed its security with the code key Alexi had given her. She got inside, just as the guidance modules went offline, setting the mobile platform to pitching with the swell of the ocean.

She flowed with the motion, keeping to the shadows. If she had ever suspected this line of work would be hers, she would have hunted down Batman for better training as a young hero. As it was, she evaded the technicians and guards alike, following her instincts to the meat of the project. She did not want to get caught still inside when Alexi’s team withdrew.

`~`~`~`~`

The powersuit-clad genius was almost to the point of having to make retreat. His small team was getting overwhelmed. He started to issue the retreat order, until a very small craft raced in with precision weapons firing. In minutes, the remaining batteries were wiped out from the air, and the fighting on deck grew a little more panicky on the part of the mercenaries. Well-aimed shots were spilling cables and barrels into their path, making their job much harder. Alexi took just a minute to hover up, surprised to find Terminator behind the controls. Without another thought of falling back, Alexi moved back into the fray, clearing the deck of the scum Barracuda had hired out.

`~`~`~`~`

Black Canary bypassed one more secured door, gaining access to the inner sanctums, so to speak. What she saw there horrified her. There could be no letting those aboard the lab escape. That was the most pressing thought on her mind before everything went blank in time with a severe pain just behind her ear.

`~`~`~`~`

"Alexi!" Humanite got his attention as they surveyed one of the doors to the lower levels. "Canary just went offline!"

"Mother of God, what is down there?" He looked at the door, and then gestured for everyone to fall back. Once they had, he gave the door a full blast. "Zoom, retrieve our bird." The speedster, always hovering in a blurry between-motion state, complied by vanishing and speeding through the corridors and stairwells. The automatic tracer each of them carried had kicked in, letting him go straight to where the woman had been dumped. It was obvious even at his speed that the levels he was on had been methodically stripped, probably before they had finished the deck mop up.

"Canary?" He phased down to her speed enough to check for a pulse, seeing the trickle of blood from her temple. She was breathing, and had a pulse, making recovery more pleasant for the speedster. He scooped her up and went back the way he had come, halting in front of Alexi to offer him the woman’s unconscious body.

Above the scene, holding a protective hover, Terminator could see as Alexi investigated the small injury on Canary’s temple, from striking something as she fell, and the more disturbing lump at the back of her skull.

"Alright, we have an injured teammate. They get away today," Alexi growled. He glanced at Humanite who held up a data device. "We’ll read whatever notes they left." Team members made their way back to headquarters, with Alexi carrying the diminutive powerhouse. Not knowing what the standing between Canary and Slade was, he did not even bother to flag the other man down, or open communications.

`~`~`~`~`

Canary regained consciousness a few times on the trip, muttering incoherently about monsters. Alexi was relieved to get her to medical, where Fries decided it was merely a concussion, and that she would not have any long-term effects. Alexi turned to leave the woman in the expert care and saw Slade had followed him in. Alexi, who had made leading CHAMP his life’s work as the villains grew stronger, craftier, and more dangerous, strode over to him and met his gaze intensely.

"Don’t even think of causing her any pain," he warned. "If you don’t remember all the details, please leave now." His polite veneer was cracking from the strong willed man he could be.

"I have my memories, Alexi." The white-haired man was not impressed, outwardly. Whatever he might have thought in truth was carefully hidden. Alexi waited just a moment more, then walked out to where he was needed.

Slade nodded to Fries, the closest he could come to apologizing for his madness a few days prior. The doctor merely returned the nod, and returned to another patient further into the medical bay. That allowed Slade to be the one sitting at Canary’s bedside, the privacy curtain pulled around them. Nor was there long to wait, as the vigilante fought the sedatives and the groggy pain.

"Monsters…made…" She struggled to sit up, and Slade moved to help her in his silent manner. Seeing him there caused her to squint through the pain, and study his face. "Slade?" Her voice was neutral, and he actually had the dignity to look down from her scrutiny. Now her arms went around his neck, embracing him in silence. The hard strength of his body was just the tonic she needed as she slipped from the bed, on his side of it. "Help me…" she murmured, trying to stand against the waves of nausea.

"I could call Alexi back."

"No time. They’ve made clones," she said, staggering until he lifted her into his arms. This time his other shoulder, on his seeing side, had no bandoleer to get in the way, and she gratefully rested her head there. He took her to where the Council was, letting her recover her equilibrium. Only outside operational control did he put her on her own feet, but even then, he kept one hand wrapped around her elbow for support.

The pair entered to see Alexi growing more frustrated at the lack of true data from the lab.

"We don’t need it, Alexi," she told him, her voice the same strong sound that they had grown accustomed to in dealing with her as Slade’s replacement. "I saw the experiments. Pretty sure they did not mean to be sloppy and let me live, either." She walked to the center of the table and activated the files from her world, calling up images of Galatea, Supergirl, and Superboy. "They’ve been working with Kryptonian DNA."

"This is very bad." No one was sure who said it, but they all felt it.

`~`~`~`~`

Details of the meeting kept them tied up for several hours, before Alexi suggested Slade take Canary home to sleep off her concussion. Both seemed reluctant to leave, feeling their duty was there, but Alexi insisted they could not do much until they knew where Star Labs had moved. The couple, which no one disputed, for all that they maintained a carefully professional distance and demeanor, left in Slade’s own jet. Canary fell asleep when he did not appear to have anything to say. When she woke, it was to the feeling of him laying her in bed, a bed she rapidly realized was his, not hers.

"Slade…" She pushed her boots off as he removed his mask and gloves. "If I said anything hateful, when you were not thinking straight…"

"I deserved it, Dinah." He turned back to her with a smile, before drawing off his shirt. Her eyes drifted over the perfect lines of his muscles, causing her to bite her lip.

"I think I should not be in here," she whispered, dropping her gaze. He sat on the edge of the bed, next to her, letting her lean up against him under one protective arm.

"Why not? Have your feelings changed? Rose told me it has been over seven years. I’d be a fool to think someone else had not caught your eye over the years." He tilted her chin up to look into her face. "Alexi?"

She could not help her chuckle at that. "No, Slade. My feelings have only grown stronger. I could not love Rose more if I had given birth to her, and I am forever grateful to Wintergreen. I’ve loved the life I have here, except for missing you, and being afraid you would not even remember how we came to that point that almost cost you your life."

"Then why deny me the right to hold you at long last?" He knew there was a piece of the puzzle missing, one that neither Wintergreen nor Rose would share. A piece that this woman he had chosen for his own had to choose to share.

"Because we must address one issue." She slipped free and pulled her mobile out of her pocket, dialing the palace in Kahndaq. "Teth? Yes, Alexi sent me home. He’s right here. Yes, I want you to." She set it to speaker phone, and moved to where the man with her could see the view screen, just as her son walked into the view on the other end. "Are you being good for Uncle Teth?" she asked, hiding any nervousness as Slade stared at the little boy with his face.

"Yes, Momma. When are you coming back for me, though?" He peered at the man over her shoulder, his eyes going wide. "Is that…"

"Yes. Your father." Canary could feel how tense Slade was, and decided that showing might not have been better than telling. "Go back to your fun; I’ll see if Rose can come get you tomorrow morning."

"Yes ma’am!" He knew better than to push the issue now, or show strong emotions. Only in private, and only with those who were family, was a lesson the boy had learned almost with walking. Dinah hung the phone up and placed it in her belt, before turning to face Slade fully.

"A son." He seemed taken fully off guard by this. "You gave me a son."

"We’ve kept his existence hidden," she told him. "You left a lot of enemies. And while I was juggling your company with Wintergreen’s help, we felt it best to not leak out the idea you had an infant son. Only Teth knew. Teth gave him an identity in Kahndaq, and he stays there if Rose nor I can be here with him."

He did not ask why she had chosen Black Adam. The man lived more remotely than any other hero, and was one of the few Slade personally trusted all the way to kingdom come. He rose and moved to Dinah, gripping her waist and pulling her tightly to his body. When words failed, there was always action, and his kiss was bruisingly filled with the emotion her revelation had sparked. Now, she did not resist, when he drew her back to the bed, knowing he accepted her and her son.

`~`~`~`~`

Slade quietly closed the door to the master bedroom, and then turned to go below and find out the status of all his threads in life from Wintergreen. Since he had awakened to his full memories, he had not yet had time to get a full briefing, and he needed to know, especially now that he had a larger family to protect than before. As he walked, Rose, already wearing her full costume and carrying her twin blades, joined him.

"Business?" he asked.

"I need to check on an operative who has been out of contact for more than three days." Her voice was as cool as his. "Have you seen mo…Dinah?" Her momentary slip between personal and professional reminded him that she was still young, barely twenty.

"You call her mother. I find it a good thing that you and she were able to make a relationship in my absence." He glanced at her, to see her frowning.

"She will be staying, yes?" Rose would not let her father, though she still worshiped him, cut away the woman she had come to love as a mother. Canary had been there for her through the brutal process of becoming the woman she was, and had kept her sane through the long years of waiting to have her father back.

"Indeed." He let just a bit of a smile ghost his lips. "Your mother is asleep. In my room." He did not miss her arched eyebrow, or the small smile she permitted herself then. "I do not wish her to be disturbed today, and she wants you to pick up your brother, if you would." He caught her slight surprise at his knowledge. "Yes, we spoke at length last night, and she showed him to me, at Teth Adam’s."

"I will go retrieve him before I go to my investigation," she told her father.

"I will accompany you," he told her. "Let me speak with Wintergreen first, and then change." She nodded to him, accompanying him to the kitchen. There, she began eating her breakfast as Slade received a thorough briefing on the missing seven years, concerning his company, the status of CHAMP and the Legion of Doom, and other professional matters. He asked nothing concerning the status of his home and family, preferring to take that briefing from his lover. When he was done, he left the two alone to go change, as promised.

"She told him," Rose said, smiling slyly. "And she slept in his room last night."

"Did you have any doubts, Miss Rose? Our Miss Dinah is a catch even your father could not afford to release back to the wilds." Wintergreen smiled at the young woman he had helped raise. "Will Master Lance be returning soon then?

"We go to get him this morning," she replied. "I’ll be sure to tell you everything. Father asked that mother be left undisturbed, so forward any requests for her to me," she told the faithful retainer.

"Yes, Miss Rose." He started straightening up as soon as she handed him her plate and glass. "I’ll see that Miss Dinah is protected from the outside world today. We both know it is a rare day that she relaxes."

"True." Rose made her way out to the small landing field behind the practice area. She decided to warm up the larger VTOL jet that her father normally had used, as both hers and the newer model still being tested could not hold two adults and a child. After a few minutes, her father emerged, dressed just as she was, with his trademark pistol and single sword. He joined her, but chose to let her pilot, wanting to see her skills. She soon had them aloft and on their way to Kahndaq.

`~`~`~`~`

Alexi added a final blow to knock out the very unhelpful Emerald Archer, extremely frustrated by his inability to find and neutralize the threat they knew existed. With a casual wave of release, he let the meta cops take the blond bowman into custody, and took off for CHAMP headquarters. As he did, he automatically opened a channel to Black Canary, accustomed to consulting her for insight.

"Yes, Alexi?" Rose’s voice answered, with his feminine rendition of Terminator’s coolness.

"Why are…never mind; I need to talk to Dinah. Is she with you?"

"No, she’s home, sleeping. Is it something only she can help with?" Rose asked back. "And if so, it will have to wait. This is her first day off in nearly six months."

"I don’t suppose you have her ability to sense where things are about to erupt into chaos?" Alexi asked, amused despite himself at Rose trying to protect the small woman.

"Check Qurac." Her enigmatic answer did not fit any pattern he had noticed, but the mysterious information gathering company known as Searchers, Inc. often had contacts that CHAMP could only envy. And Slade’s heir, with the aid of Slade’s paramour, headed that company up.

"Thank you, Rose. My best to Canary." He signed off and concentrated on navigating CHAMP’s landing bay, already summoning up the names of any heroes he could send into that area to dig up information.

`~`~`~`~`

"Alexi relies heavily on our Canary?" Slade asked his daughter.

"She’s not even on Council, but he often brings her in to head up strike teams." Rose watched the altimeter as she was bringing the VTOL down on the palace-landing pad. "No one minds much; there was no one else in your league able to take up that spot." She then smiled slyly. "Although, she has approved me going in her place a few times, to Alexi’s dismay. He does not like working with 'juveniles', as he put it."

"Hmm." Slade noted that Teth’s country had made considerable progress. It had pleased him to help in liberating this country, sending in the best mercenaries on his payroll for his old friend. Teth had repaid the investment by hiring Slade’s company to handle much of the military and police training. "Tell me how Dinah interacts with everyone."

"She has little time to be social. Always willing to help in a mission but comes home as soon as it is done and she’s visited you." Rose grimaced. "Sometimes I think she only went to missions so she could visit you without feeling like an interloper at CHAMP."

"Why?"

"She works very hard, but there are some who resent the way she fell into the higher cadre of heroes. They saw her as riding your coattails, so to speak, or using her influence on Alexi and Teth." Rose expertly powered down in minimum time. She then unbelted, and joined her father in leaving the vehicle.

"So Alexi remained somewhat smitten with her?" That amused Slade; he liked the younger man, but only to a point.

Rose merely nodded, already scanning the environment as they walked into the palace. She had the utmost faith in her brother’s godfather, but it never hurt to be aware of the surroundings. She noted her father did it too, but was less noticeably paranoid. She had only been thirteen at the time of his accident, worshiping him even though he was so rarely home. When the blonde vigilante turned up on the doorstep with the grave news of her father’s near death, she had not wanted to accept it. She had wanted to scream out loud, to turn Canary away despite her father’s instructions to accept her if she ever showed up there.

Then Canary had said the one thing that earned her a free pass into the Wilson household. ("It is my fault, Rose, and I would understand perfectly if you hate me. He is only this hurt because he protected me.") In taking the blame, and reminding Rose that her father had chosen Canary, placing her under his protection, the daughter had heeded the father’s wishes. Rose had never had cause to regret it, either.

"I’m glad you are back with us, Father," she said at last, her voice low, intended for his ears alone. He nodded in acceptance of her words, hearing the sounds of a classroom of children near to where she had led him. Rose stopped just outside the door, and let her father look in. He could see ten children, ranging in age from his own son up to about ten years old, practicing Japanese vocabulary. He took the opportunity to observe the boy, seeing a sturdy child of seven with jet-black hair, save the one white streak that fell on his right side. He saw the boy look around at each speaker, and noted his reactions to each in the body language he displayed. The child was already learning to mask his reactions, Slade noted, and wondered just what details Dinah had left out in telling him of the decision to hide the boy’s existence.

"How long will they be in class, Rose?" he asked quietly, not wishing to be impatient in this first meeting.

"Normally, I go to Teth’s office, and he will send an aide to fetch Lance."

"Lance." He quirked a small smile at the name.

"Lance Wilson. Wintergreen made sure of the details when he buried the birth certificate for mother in our country’s bureaucracy waste basket." Rose pointed discreetly to a dark girl just barely older than Lance. "That is Amoree, Teth’s daughter and Lance’s best friend. Like the others in the class, she is gifted."

"Dinah is already training Lance?" Slade asked at her mention of ‘gifted’. Rose nodded, but he could see there was more as he turned to walk with her to Teth’s office. "Gifted like your brother?" he asked, almost dreading the answer.

"No! Nothing like that…" She shuddered violently, making him lay a hand on her shoulder. "I’ll tell you about Joey another time. Lance meeting you today is more important." She centered her mind, and pushed away the horrific images in her head. "Lance inherited something of us, something of his mother. He can place suggestions that become compulsions, just by speaking a certain way."

"Interesting."

"It was a good thing the ability waited until he had learned not to disobey mother or I," she said with a smile. They assumed their professional demeanor and turned into an office with a very fetching receptionist. She nodded pleasantly, waving them on into the inner office.

"Well, it seems miracles never cease from Doctor Fries," Black Adam boomed in his friendly voice. He came around the desk that he had been rising from to grip Slade’s shoulder firmly, then to bow slightly to Rose. "How is Dinah? Alexi told me she was injured."

"A mere concussion," Slade told him. "I left her to rest at our home." In those eight words, he set Teth’s mind at ease. Like Alexi, he had been concerned about how things would work out for the petite fighter that had left her entire world for a man who had almost been killed the very next day.

"Well, it won’t keep her out of the game for long," Teth said, indicating they should sit. "I’ve sent for the boy." He resumed his seat behind the desk. "Tell Dinah that he continues to excel, and to commend Wintergreen for the boy’s tutoring at home."

"Teth, have you heard anything odd coming out of Qurac lately?" Rose asked in her no-nonsense way. "I had an operative go offline three days ago there."

"Was it a woman who is exceptionally skilled in the use of chemicals as well as fighting?" he rejoined. At her nod, he sighed. "I should have known she was one of yours. My patrols found her, half out of her mind, and brought her in, but she’s been delirious when she’s been awake."

"I’ll have to stay here and see what I can learn," Rose said. She then turned, hearing the approach of the aide and her brother. The door opened, and only the boy continued inside, his eyes scanning the three people in the room. For Teth, he bowed his head politely, while Rose got a quick, shy smile. He then focused entirely on Slade, his face solemn and his eyes searching the masked face. Rose unconsciously held her breath, realizing just how hard this had to be on not only her father, but on the boy she had helped raise for the past seven years. She wished hard that Dinah had come, to ease the emotional tension in the room.

"Hello, sir." The voice was high, clearly that of a young child, but his inflections were reserved and polite. The only sign of nerves Slade could see in the boy was the tense way he held himself perfectly still.

"Hello, son," Slade replied, standing and moving close. "I am glad to finally meet you, Lance." He gripped the boy’s shoulder briefly; he did not think the boy was ready for a hug from him, a stranger in truth. Then Lance moved, and the boy hugged his waist hard anyway, careful of the holstered pistol.

"I am too," the little boy whispered, still reining in most of his emotions, living by his mother’s rules. He pulled back and turned to Teth. "Please tell Amoree I will write while I am at home."

"Of course, Lance." The ruler nodded to him again, then stood and shook Slade’s hand, pleased that Slade kept the boy at his side, with one hand on his shoulder. "I’ll see Rose home when she is ready," he promised, as the young woman had slipped out once Lance hugged their father.

"Thank you, for all you have done for my family." Slade never forgot a debt, and in his way of thinking, this one was the largest he had ever accumulated to one man and not repaid.

"You think I did this for you? No, it was that blonde fighter and your white haired elfin daughter," the ruler told him with a laugh. "Be safe, my friend, and marry that woman before Alexi finally makes an offer she won’t refuse!" His laughter followed father and son into the hallway quite a distance.

`~`~`~`~`

Rose held Cheshire’s hand as the woman slowly roused, letting her know she was not alone. She hoped this time that her operative was actually able to be lucid, so that they could get the details they needed. Her incoherent ramblings had so far mentioned a Kestrel and an Ultraman, two things that did not set well with Rose at all, especially as she knew Kestrel was exiled to another dimension, and Ultraman was confined in the Negative Zone.

"Ungghh." The sound caused Rose to move closer, using her other hand to stroke the older woman’s hair back. "Rose?" she whispered, her voice free of the paranoid tension at last.

"Yes, Jade. I’m with you." The white haired mercenary smiled as her operative finally looked at her with clear eyes. "You had me worried, my friend. What would I tell your daughter?"

"She would go willingly with you, Rose. You know this." She tried to sit up, and accepted the younger woman’s assistance. "Let me brief you, so you may act. You should not be hovering over my death bed."

"You are not dying," Rose insisted, her quiet voice forceful. Cheshire reached up and gently pushed the other woman’s hair behind one ear.

"If I were, it would be your face I saw in Death’s visage." The Eurasian woman sighed softly as Rose lowered her eyes. The unspoken bonds forged between them were too complex for either to admit to, but they both admitted there was a connection that ran deep.

"Tell me what happened in Qurac?" Rose took a chair, so that she was no longer distracted on personal level.

"A small army of the metas that we have not rounded up, and three new ones. All three new ones were flying and using laser beams from their eyes. A young man led the way on an Owlglider, but the three fliers caused the devastation. One of them was male, two were female. I saw them at close range, and the male looks much like Ultraman, but younger. One of the females…she looked eerily like the Black Kestrel, also younger. The other female was unknown to me, but could have passed for a younger sister to Ultraman, though her hair was as light as the Kestrel one’s." Cheshire watched her nominal employer take it all in, and then rise.

"I’ll bring Lian here. She and Amoree get on well," Rose said. "Take the next week to recover, Cheshire. We may need your skill with drugs." The white haired woman walked to the door and paused, looking over her shoulder. "I mean it, Jade. No work for a week."

"Very well, Rose." Cheshire closed her eyes, accepting the younger woman’s commands, pleased that her daughter would soon be with her again.

`~`~`~`~`

Dinah Lance was sunbathing when the VTOL came in for a landing. She glanced at it, and then slowly stood with a long leisurely stretch. By the time it was powered down, she had wrapped a caftan around her body and slipped her sandals on. To a casual eye, she was as far from looking like an experienced vigilante as Slade looked the part of a mercenary. To him, though, she looked like a picture of physical perfection, moving with a grace of predatory skill.

As soon as they were clear of the landing field, Lance took off like a shot, launching from three feet away into his mother’s arms. She laughed and hugged him tight, then spun him around.

"You were good?" she asked, smiling brightly for him. Slade approved the way she focused entirely on Lance, putting their son ahead of their own relationship.

"Yes, Momma," he promised her, getting shy for a minute. "May I go see Wintergreen?" He squirmed in her arms, acting like a normal child in the presence of his much loved mother.

"Yes, he’s dying to see you," she said, setting him down on his own two feet. He hugged her legs, then turned and waved shyly at his father before running to the house. When Dinah turned from watching him get inside, Slade was directly at her side. She moved into his arms, resting her head on his shoulder and closing her eyes. "Tell me your thoughts about him. Now, while they’re fresh."

"Those are thoughts I will not forget for many years, Dinah." He inhaled the scent of her hair. "Flowers, still."

"We added a small greenhouse, so I would not lose that." She gave a small squeak when he picked her up, walking toward the house.

"He is a strong boy. Well disciplined. Intelligent." He glanced down at her. "He has your exuberance when he is not holding it under the rules you and Rose have instilled in him. And today, all day, you are mine, to tell me why you safeguarded my son so tightly, why Rose flinches at the mention of Joey…and you do too." He frowned as she buried her face into his neck. "I wish to know all the details of the seven years that has caged my Canary’s free spirit."

"It might take a bit to work through," she said, half teasing. He made a small noise deep in his chest, taking her to her office. He admired the floral arrangements in there as he set her down on the desk. Once he had closed the door and sat down in the ‘client’ chair, she slipped off the desk and back into his lap. He allowed, even enjoyed it, sensing her deep need to be as close to him as she could in the privacy of their home.

"Start with the day I almost left you," he encouraged.

`~`~`~`~`

CHAMP headquarters was abuzz with flying rumors of dire events unfolding in the mideast. Rose had reported there, rather than go home and possibly intrude on her father and mother doing family things. Alexi, never truly pleased to deal with the young woman, had no choice but to listen to her when she laid detailed maps of the Quraci capitol out with the destruction marked clearly. He called in a few governmental favors and acquired satellite imagery that verified her intelligence. With that done, he issued an all call to all available, legitimately enlisted heroes. Slade looked at the phone with irritation, but Dinah moved from his lap to answer it. She had managed to explain that Joey had escaped about a year after Slade’s accident, and had spent the years since trying to hurt or kill the Wilson household. His last encounter with Rose had been very nearly deadly, as he was possessing a brilliant martial artist named Dragon.

Now Slade would have to wait to hear the rest of it, as his paramour answered the emergency line with Alexi.

"Canary, is Terminator with you?" Alexi began without preamble. "I wish you both to come to New York, to discuss what we should do concerning Qurac."

"We’ll be there in the hour, Alexi. Send the information as it stands to my console."

"Very well. Your daughter is already here," he told her. "CHAMP out." He cut the communications, leaving Dinah chewing thoughtfully on her lip.

"What?" Slade stood, already reaching for his mask from his belt.

"He’s very disturbed by whatever Rose told him. He did not say her name with disdain, nor did he look me over," she told him, indicating her scantily covered form. Slade did look her over, earning him a smile before she moved to the small changing screen. When she came out, he noted that she had melded her traditional look of fishnets and leather with the more practical armored design that her Batman had given her. Her boots, gloves, one-piece body suit were all black with gold accents. The part that caught his eye the most was the long coat. It closed over her chest, and had full motion capability from there down. Its swirl could be used to deflect thrown objects, and from the way it swayed, he could tell it was made from the lightweight Kevlar.

"Very interesting." He indicated her costume before placing his hand on the small of her back to walk her out.

"Glad you like it," she purred. He slipped his hand lower than the small of her back, letting her know silently what plans he had for later.

`~`~`~`~`

The assembled heroes were battle scarred and worn down from the fight to counter the Legion of Doom. As Slade escorted Dinah in, he noted the awe they regarded him with, and felt the vague unease of being a living legend. It seemed that in the years he had slept, frozen by his friend to save his life, that the battle had still been decidedly against them. There were faces missing, for whatever reason, and newer, younger faces. He guided her to the chairs next to Rose, seating her on his blind side, and Rose on his good one.

"Black Canary," Alexi began. "Some of our members have never fought a Kryptonian. Enlighten them." He gave the floor to the blonde, who rose and nodded to him.

"A Kryptonian, such as the unlamented Ultraman, possesses the abilities to fly, move at superspeed, various supersenses, and superstrength. They are invulnerable for the most part, though slightly more susceptible to magic based attacks." She continued to lay out their strengths and weaknesses, calling up her files on Superboy, Supergirl, and Galatea. Slade watched the brisk professionalism at work with pride, especially when Rose was called on to give her account, taken from her operative. She described the scene of destruction in Qurac exactly as Cheshire had, giving the descriptions of the three Kryptonians and their allies.

"Now, here is our problem." Alexi took the floor back. "Qurac has long kept the world out. No appeal for help has escaped their borders. Yet, we cannot allow this army of rogues to occupy and control a country suspected of having both biological agents and irradiated materials."

"Let my company handle it," Rose said, not even looking at her father.

"Not this time, Lady Terminator." Sinestro shook his head. "This force must be taken down and dealt with for good. Before another country comes under assault."

"That would overstep our bounds as a sanctioned meta intervention organization," Grodd said. "I prefer the discretion that Lady Terminator brings to the table for such an undertaking."

"There is still the threat of Star Labs," Maxwell Lord pointed out. "We must keep resources on that problem."

"Alexi," Circe said, bringing attention around to herself. She rarely spoke up in these meetings, but when she did they paid close attention. "We need discretion in this, or there will be fallout. Perhaps Lady Terminator would conscience the placement of more personnel from our ranks at her command, in her uniforms? Then, the rest of us consciously step up our presence in our cities, hunting Star Labs. They must not be allowed create more."

"Lady Terminator?" Alexi kept his tone polite, and was impressed that she did not consult her father at all.

"I believe that is a good idea, but I would prefer low profile powers," she told him. "Nothing flashy enough to draw attention to the fact I occasionally employ metas."

"Done."

`~`~`~`~`

Sinestro continued his scans of the northern part of Africa, playing off a hunch that if Kahndaq had been invaded, that Star Labs would be near enough to monitor their experiment. He was flying solo, having delivered an assortment of young heroes to Lady Terminator in Kahndaq. All he wanted was to find some trace of Star Labs, to once and for all end their maniacal plans. His idea of law and order had been challenged and upset repeatedly, since he came to this sector to try and eliminate the rogue elements from the Corps. And now, they sent a barely grown girl with third-rate heroes and mercenaries to take down a small army of metavillains…it was entirely preposterous.

It felt just the barest hint of a warning from his ring before the walls of yellow energy swarmed up around him. The ugly sneering face of Warrior, the grim visage of the ex-marine, and the too pretty features of their young protégé, the Artist were all around him as they focused their powers together, to try and take him down.

"CHAMP, capture present location," he said quickly, before concentrating on drawing his willpower into a solid sphere in front of him. As he did, the three rogue Yellow Lanterns pressed their advantage of numbers, but he merely smiled with complete confidence. As they drew closer, he suddenly released the extremely tight energy sphere he had made. It exploded out, shoving each of them far from him. He then laughed mockingly at their efforts to regroup, even as he took the Artist in a construct and hurled him across the landscape. That left him facing the undisciplined Warrior, and Power Ring, the ex-marine.

"Surrender, Sinestro. You may beat the rookie pretty easy, but you can’t take both of us," Power Ring rumbled menacingly.

"I believe you confused me with some other Lantern, John Stewart!" Sinestro lashed out with his power, but was countered by a mirroring construct. He kept his eyes on Warrior, who was coming around him, trying to pinion him.

"Tear you apart!" Warrior used his ring to suddenly propel himself into Sinestro’s space, but the crafty Korugarian merely willed a thick wrapping of green energy to catch, enfold, and contain him, long enough to throw it far away as he had the Artist.

"Just you and I, Stewart. Do you really wish to test me further?" Sinestro taunted, as they exchanged construct blows. The pair was evenly matched on imagination, lacking the artistic or creative sense that others employed, but they were still effective.

"I believe you miscounted." The resonant voice, and the vice that cut through his energy shields just as Stewart pressed his attack actually gave Sinestro a moment of doubt. He knew it was his greatest student, and just as clearly, he knew that the man was supposed to be dead.

"Hal Jordan," he gasped, trying to push the yellow energy away with his own green. Both Power Ring and the other man laughed at his efforts, redoubling their own to keep him contained. Sinestro could feel his body aching with the effort to hold the energy at bay, and felt the ring warning him that the two he had removed were coming to reinforce their allies.

"Hal Jordan is false," came a thought in his mind, the calm flowing sensation of Hammond reinforcing Sinestro’s will. The honesty of the sending thought helped Sinestro gather his waning resolve, throwing it into another concentrated burst of green power, throwing off his attackers and destroying the illusion that was Hal Jordan.

"Zatanna, I take it?" Sinestro growled at Stewart, hammering him to the ground with a construct blow. He saw the scene on the ground as Hammond and Prometheus eliminated the threat of Zatanna.

"Others deal with the Ring wielders. A fine hunch you played, old friend," Hammond sent. "Black Adam is sending forces to scour the area for their base here."

Sinestro glided to land, keeping Power Ring pinned until he could be negated of his powers. "Thank you, Hammond."

"But of course."

`~`~`~`~`

Rose glanced up as Black Adam walked into the office he had given her to organize her battle plans, his face grim.

"Rose, I must ask of you a favor." He twisted at a plain band on his finger. "Amoree…and Lian. Both need to be far from here, while we prepare, and for after."

"I agree. I can have Cheshire take the girls home." She did not hesitate to offer; Cheshire was one of the very few operatives who knew where her employer actually lived. "Father said it was not necessary to be so secretive about Lance’s parentage now."

Black Adam looked relieved. "I have sent all the other children home to their parents. Amoree and Lian have grown quite close this visit. Why have you never introduced me to Lian’s mother before this?" Typically, Rose would bring Lian here when Cheshire had to go deep undercover.

"Never had need to, Teth. She’s my top agent for getting to the truth of the matter." Rose smiled at the man she looked to as an uncle. "And you never really asked where I acquired a red headed Asian child from."

"Will Lance still come to visit now that your father is awake?"

"Yes. We’re not going to be any less busy, even if he doesn’t choose to take the company back, or if he opts not to rejoin CHAMP."

Black Adam laughed. "Your father will be waist deep in CHAMP by midweek, though I doubt he’ll take the company back. You and Canary have done admirably with it."

"Even if CHAMP won’t follow up to all the leads we give," Rose said darkly. Black Adam inclined his head.

"Part of why I left was the feeling that they were not doing all they could. And it’s not fully Alexi’s fault. The charter they operate under precludes many things that could be beneficial."

"When mother feels they are too restrictive, you know there is a problem," Rose said.

"Indeed. I have seen her extend a hand of peace in mid-battle, to try and convert some young soul back to our side, but if she is rebuffed, she will put them away." Black Adam nodded. "I’ll see that Amoree and Lian are packed, if you’ll inform Cheshire." He left, and she stood from the desk, stretching before walking to the quarters that her operative was in. She knocked briefly, and then went on in, to find Cheshire brushing the long red hair of little Lian.

"Aunt Rose!" The child moved quickly to hug Rose.

"Hello, little Lian. Jade."

"Rose." The operative inclined her head.

"I’ve a task for you, Jade. I need you to take your daughter and Amoree to my home. I also wish you to stay there, as you’re not fully healed." Her eyes held concern as Cheshire began to protest. "Please. There will be three children there to protect. And I know both my parents will trust my choice." Rose was looking at Lian, and did not see the odd look pass through her friend’s eyes.

"Three?" Cheshire inquired, her voice neutral.

"Yes. The boy Lance your daughter has mentioned as a student here…He is my brother." Rose took a deep breath. "Will you do this for me?"

"I do believe I would enjoy contact with a younger sibling of yours." Cheshire inclined her head. "I’ll leave shortly, if I may use your vehicle."

"It’s in the hangar," Rose said, leaving the mother and daughter. She failed to see Lian scrutinizing her mother closely, even as Cheshire did not.

`~`~`~`~`

Slade entered Dinah’s room with a purpose, still bare-chested, but wearing his armored pants already. He found her sitting in front of the mirror, pulling her hair back in the high ponytail she preferred for going to combat. They both were going to meet their daughter in Kahndaq, in time for the deployment into Qurac. Rose had planned an operation of several teams infiltrating the borders and the capital city simultaneously, to take out all the nests of minor metas that had been found. Black Adam, Alexi, and a handful of others would see to the Kryptonian threat.

"Dinah, before we go, I have something for you," Slade said, pausing in the middle of her room. She stood from her vanity and came to him with a shy smile, her eyes lit up with her feelings for him.

"You shouldn’t spoil me so much," she purred, stepping into his space to lay her head on his solid chest. He closed his eye for a moment, thankful to have found someone to tie him back to humanity the way she did. He then reached down and took her left hand, and took what he intended to give her from his pocket. She watched in stunned surprise as he held a simple gold band poised over her finger.

"Dinah?" In that one word, she heard him ask her to stay forever, to be his wife, to be the mother of his children in everyone’s eyes.

"Yes." She had to stop herself from shedding tears as he slid the ring all the way down, where it fit snugly. She then turned her face up, and he obliged her with a firm kiss that promised more later.

"YES!" The little voice startled them both, so wrapped up in each other they had not heard their son. Slade turned to regard him in amusement, as the boy was standing in the doorway between his and his mother’s room. "Momma’s going to marry father!" he shrieked, running all the way downstairs, calling it out to the house, until Wintergreen finally answered him with a congratulations and ‘I told you so’.

"It seems I have made two Lances happy," he murmured against her ear, taking one more embrace.

"Yes, Slade, you have." She drew back to regard him with a smile. "Now, unless you want your daughter’s friend to see you in all your magnificent glory, I suggest you go finish dressing." She swatted at him playfully as he turned to go back to his room to do that, winning her a mock sigh.

"Have you met Cheshire?" he called as he walked.

"Briefly, after she saved Rose’s life," Dinah answered him, grabbing her long coat and following him to his room. "A quiet woman. Very skilled with drugs. She can make a person sleep or babble their innermost secrets given ten minutes and her kit."

"And a skilled fighter, Rose said. She feels Cheshire, even wounded still, will be adequate assistance to Wintergreen to safeguard all three children." He slipped the armored shirt on, and then smiled as she came to tie his mask on for him. They were very well matched in ability and inclination on the battlefield, but at home, it had not ceased to amaze him how good it could be to have such a full partner in his life. It had been too long since Addie, and she had not been as giving of herself as Dinah was.

"I don’t think we have anything to worry about," she told him, assisting him in placing his weapons. Soon, they were headed downstairs to see to the arrival of Cheshire and passengers, before they would leave. "Lance?" she called as she entered the main room, smiling when the boy rocketed up into her arms, holding a pair of her gloves for her. When she accepted them, he pulled her hand up and inspected the simple band on her finger closely. Slade was highly amused when the boy nodded approvingly.

"Won’t hurt you at all when you punch someone’s lights out," he decreed. They all heard the VTOL then, and Lance flipped out of his mother’s grasp, becoming the very still, very disciplined child once more. To his father, barely learning the habits of this most unusual boy, it was almost as if he had two very different sons. The small family walked out to greet their house guests, even as Wintergreen took a weather eye over the field, his hunting rifle very near to him.

"Cheshire has been here once, Slade. She helped me bring Rose home when the girl was injured so severely. I did not know she had a daughter." Dinah glanced down at Lance. "Did you ever meet her in Kahndaq?"

"I know Lian, but Rose always brought her and took her away," Lance supplied. "Amoree is really coming too?"

"Yes, my little one. Her father thought it best." She watched as the hatch opened, then moved to assist the ones inside. As she did so, Slade grew concerned, seeing her hesitate and actually jerk a bit. He moved forward, but then his fiancée helped a girl out with bright red hair. The woman in green had to be Cheshire, and she was assisting the dark little girl he knew to be Amoree.

"Cheshire, welcome," Dinah said softly, her eyes fixated on the too familiar features of the girl. She could feel the pangs of homesickness, something she usually ignored, building to a heart-wrenching pain. "And your daughter…Lian?"

"Yes, Siu Jerk Jai," Cheshire said, meeting the blonde’s eyes. There was only one way she could have known that name, and have a child of such brilliant red hair with that face. Dinah covered her mouth, turning away as she broke her own rule about showing emotions in front of those who were not family. Slade was at her side instantly, appraising the girl for an instant. He remembered the fiery red head that had sat vigil with him when it looked like Dinah would never heal from the sword wounds. He remembered the young man had been like a son to her, and that he had blown off steam with some of the younger CHAMP folks during that brief stay. Apparently there had been unforeseen consequences.

"Wintergreen will see to your needs, Cheshire, and I am sure Lance can show the girls the house." He indicated his son to come forward, missing the odd look that crossed Cheshire’s face momentarily. He did, however, see his son’s eyes narrow just slightly, as if reviewing a threat potential. "Lance, pay attention to Wintergreen," he said, seeing a gap in the household by not knowing the current family code. If the boy were uncomfortable with Cheshire, he would have to find a way to enlist Wintergreen’s help. Slade trusted Rose’s evaluation, but Wintergreen was even better at judging people.

"Father, I will see that the girls have all they need." Lance’s voice was as steady as the grown-ups, and at Dinah’s look back to him, Slade guessed a code phrase had just been given. "Tell my sister to be safe." Dinah nodded at that, composed now, as she went and hugged Amoree just a moment. Slade could not be sure, but he thought she gave some kind of instruction in her greeting to the child. They took the newer, faster, two-man jet, leaving the house and gaining altitude quickly.

"Tell me what happened," Slade said.

"Lance distrusts Cheshire, but not enough to warrant us going off mission. It may be no more than stranger anxiety, but he will be on guard, and make sure Amoree and Wintergreen are as well." Dinah glanced down toward the house. "I told Amoree to think hard about Cheshire. She’s an illusionist, mostly, but sometimes she can sense a person’s motive."

"So our son has a witch for a friend." Slade was amused. "Remind me to get current on all of our passphrases in the house."

"Yes, I should have done that last night instead of distracting you," she teased. He merely laughed, having enjoyed the distraction fully.

"Siu Jerk Jai means Little Bird, doesn’t it?" he questioned. "Your name from formal training?"

"Yes, and a phrase she could only have known from Lian’s father. I told it to him once, when I told him of learning martial arts to supplement what Wildcat had taught me as a girl." She felt the homesickness again, but then she felt the ring on her finger, and knew she would never trade it for anything in her native world.

"Seems your dimension has very fertile heroes," he teased lightly, making her laugh at him. Arsenal would only have had two weeks to court and win Cheshire’s affections, and Lance had resulted from the sole encounter Slade had shared with Dinah before his accident.

`~`~`~`~`

Alexi, Black Adam, Solomon Grundy, and Bane were all on their way to intercept the Kryptonians in Qurac, as Lady Terminator deployed her small teams to handle the fifty or so meta villains running loose in the country. Circe was holding back, staying well behind the four powerhouses, to lend a touch of magic where needed. Though they had no formal injunction to act on the invasion, Alexi had let the League of Nations know he was going in to discuss the actions. They wanted to know as much as the next organization just what was happening in the troublesome little country.

"Any word from Sinestro about North Africa?" Alexi asked Circe on the comms.

"He, Prometheus, and Hammond found the Star Labs base, but only scientists were present. They have been taken to Egypt for questioning over their illegal facility." Circe seemed troubled, which meant Alexi needed to be on the lookout.

"Is Canary in place?" he asked then, reminded of the little blonde’s infamous sixth sense for danger.

"She is. I can feel her below us." The enchantress smiled delightfully. "She is in good spirit."

"Should be," Alexi snorted. "Haven’t seen her out of Slade’s shadow since he came back to himself." He could not keep just a trace of jealousy out of his voice. Though his ‘courtship’ of the tiny blonde was a carefully staged production between them, he did honestly value her friendship.

"Now, now." Circe was amused. "Time to land, Alexi," she added, noting the foursome were in position to descend right on top of the capitol’s palace. She guided Grundy and Bane down, having placed them on disks of her mystic energy. Alexi of course descended quickest, with his competitive need to be the first to confront the new masters of Qurac. That the first one out to meet him wore an idealized Owlman costume and was, if anything, younger than Lady Terminator did not set well with him at all.

"So CHAMP finally rears its ugly head here?" the young man said in a deceptively quiet voice. "The populace has accepted us as their new leaders, having freed them from an oppressive dictatorship." His voice was smug, and he folded his arms over his chest as if to say ‘tempt fate’.

"Then you’ll have no problem letting our inspectors in to see for themselves," Alexi said. "Your neighbor Black Adam would much appreciate knowing all accords were being kept."

"Of course," the heir to the Owl family said with a smile of pure malice. He gestured for the four supers on the ground to look around. "I have nothing to hide. Let me introduce you to my cabinet, in fact."

As the words came out of his mouth, there was a rush of superspeed in their direction, which took all but Black Adam down in the first blow. He found himself staring at a young woman in a purple cloak, her face masked against all expression. Alexi recovered himself to one knee, and blocked the next blow aimed at him from a young man no older than Owlman Junior, but one that hauntingly mirrored Ultraman's own features. Both Grundy and Bane were slow, and took another blow from the woman that looked like a young version of their own Black Canary.

"This would be UltraBoy, Spoiler, and Kestrel," the Owl costumed man said calmly, watching as the fighting began in earnest with a sadistic smile curling at his lips. "They will show you the ways of our new country."

All three of the newcomer villains fought with savage intensity, but their opponents were capable of taking and dealing severe damage themselves. Owlman Junior merely watched, until his information started pouring in. There was news of his operatives countrywide being dealt with ruthlessly by very skilled mercenaries. It made him start scanning the area, and think about a cautious retreat, if he could get his puppets to stop toying with their prey long enough.

His line of retreat halted as the ground beneath his feet exploded under a sonic barrage, knocking him sideways. He shook his head, feeling a trickle of blood from a cut just over his eye. He looked to see the woman attacking him, a feral snarl touching his lips. Ever since that fateful day when they had attacked her and failed to kill her, the Owl family had been under the gun from her sense of justice.

"So the little bird thinks she can sing me to sleep?" he mocked her. "Come on, woman; I’ll kill you like Raptor should have."

"You may try, but he says otherwise!" she replied back with a saucy toss of her head toward something behind him. He felt the presence, just before Terminator paralyzed him with a nerve blow. Another solid blow insured the young man was good and out of action, but that opened a new hole in the plans they had laid down.

"TIM!" The young man battling Alexi broke off his fight, kicking Alexi when the power suited man tried to hold him in place. Alexi fell back, his suit sparking from the lucky super blow against his power cell. The Kryptonian clone used his superspeed to snatch the fallen Owlman up and fly away, too quick for even Terminator to follow through on. The pair of women followed their male counterpart, but Terminator was quick enough this time to fire a tagger against one of their boots.

"Alexi?" Canary cried to her friend.

"Give pursuit; I’m fine!" he shouted back. Black Adam and Circe gathered up their allies, and took flight after them.

`~`~`~`~`

Rose’s communication link went live on the personal band, surprising her as she was just receiving the reports from all of her people. At the message she received, she curtly turned over the entire operation to her second in command, and raced for her one-man jet. She was in the air before her second had time to order all units to report to him. Her flying was just a hair under reckless, her heart pounding in her chest at what her brother had managed to get out before the communication ominously died.

`~`~`~`~`

Terminator went rigid as his tracking device seemed to settle on a course. Canary looked at him, holding on to Black Adam as they flew at break neck speeds. When he looked at her and shook his head, she tightened her grip further.

"Our home, Teth!" she told the man, her lips at his ear to be heard over the rushing wind. "They’re on course to our children!" Black Adam growled low in his throat.

"Circe, teleport us! Wilson Mansion!" he commanded the sorceress. She gasped, halting their flight to summon the energy it would take to make such a jump.

"To the ground! I cannot hold four in the air, and make the teleport work!" she said, diving with the non-flying men and Alexi, whose suit was still repairing itself. Black Adam looked grim as they touched down, willing as much of his wisdom to the witch as he dared, to help her make a strong enough spell for all of them to pass through. Canary seemed to be concentrating hard on something, but Black Adam thought it was likely the total focus of a mother whose child was endangered.

"Rose is en route," Terminator told her. At her nod, he focused his mind completely on what it would take to disable the three superbeings. Just as he achieved the full battle mind he was capable of, the teleport hit, and they were on his lawn. Circe wavered on her feet, and Alexi assisted her in remaining upright. Black Adam launched himself upward, ready to meet the threat in the air when it arrived. As it was, Terminator’s tracker showed that they would arrive almost simultaneously with his daughter.

"Check the house?" Canary questioned, her eyes scanning the formidable structure. "There’s no acknowledgment that Wintergreen knows we’ve arrived."

"Cheshire has to be implicated somehow; how else would they know to come here to hurt us?" Black Adam growled.

"Why here?" Alexi demanded, shutting an access panel on his suit. "What’s here?"

"I sent my daughter here," Black Adam told the man.

"To stay with our son," Deathstroke added. He did not miss the tightness of Alexi’s jaw as he turned his gaze angrily from Adam to Canary. She was still scanning the house with one thought in mind: her son’s safety.

"You had a son!" Alexi’s voice drew her attention. "Why did you not tell me?"

"Because I told no one." She stood her ground, even though she was unused to him lashing out at her. "Black Adam only learned because I needed help, not long after he was born. He took the emergency call at headquarters, and he agreed that in the light of all the bad blood between the Owls and myself, as well as all of Slade’s unfinished business, that hiding the boy’s existence was for the best."

"None of this is part of the current problem," Bane said at last. "The super freaks are, and we need to put them down hard."

"Friend Bane says truth," Grundy said. "Pretty Bird Woman, go check children. We fight here."

Canary nodded. "Right as always, Grundy," she told the large spirit of vengeance. She slipped away from the group, preparing for a full out assault once she entered the house. When it did not come immediately, her nerves prickled. The house was almost silent, and that was unnerving in itself. The various tickings of clocks pressed against her heightened senses as she tried hard to catch the tiniest sound of her child, or the other occupants. Something drew her to the kitchen, and she went cautiously, unsure just what they had walked back into.

As she cleared the door, she saw a man’s shoe, just beyond the kitchen island. She moved a shade further, and saw it was Wintergreen. Silently, she moved to where she could see his sprawled form, and knelt beside his head. A check confirmed he lived, but he had struck his temple in falling. A quick inspection revealed a dart in the neck on the side away from her. That told her how the man had been taken down. Though no longer young, Wintergreen prided himself on keeping in shape and trained on all weapons in the house.

She moved on, seeing the cellar door slightly ajar. She moved to go down into it, and heard the slightest whisper of cloth. Taking stairs down into a dark room was no easy task, but she had to know. With a hope to confusing whomever was down there, she leaped through the door and landed down at the bottom of the stairs in aggressive posture.

"Momma!" Lance called to her as the darkness lifted under an illusory lamp in Amoree’s hand. It revealed Cheshire laying face down, and all three children huddled far from her. Canary went to the operative, and found she too was alive, though asleep.

"Miss Dinah, Lance made her go to sleep," Amoree said, still keeping hold of Lian’s hand.

"She attacked Wintergreen. I had to use my power," he said defensively.

"You did fine." Canary went and held all three children close. "Stay in here though. There are people coming that your father must defeat," she said, walking back to Cheshire. She quickly strip-cuffed the woman and carried her back above, where the sounds of battle raged. She dumped Cheshire just outside the door and aimed her Canary Cry at the nearest Kryptonian enhanced villain. The blow did little more than shove the purple-clad, masked woman, but it distracted her the minute Grundy needed to lay her out with a solid haymaker. She turned her attention elsewhere, running to join both Slade and Rose in battling the one introduced as Kestrel. It stood out to her that Kestrel appeared to be just a tiny bit older than Rose, making her age match up suspiciously close to when the woman had tried to seduce Slade to her side.

It was with some relief that Canary noted these clones were not fully possessed of all the powers inherent to Kryptonians. The three fighters were able to weave in and out of one another’s patterns, keeping Kestrel fully contained, while Alexi and Black Adam battled UltraBoy. Bane was unconscious, with burns through the precious lines of fluid that kept him from being just an ordinary man.

With Spoiler down and out, Grundy charged into the battle of the Terminator household, taking Kestrel off their hands.

"Where did Owlman Junior go?" Canary asked, slightly winded.

"They did not have him when they descended," Deathstroke replied, watching as Alexi was forced to one knee in a strength contest. Black Adam was reeling from a blow to the head, but Alexi was not finished yet. With a roar, he forced himself back up to his feet, and opened his palm blasters. The green energy that poured out hit the clone and caused him to reel back. Built closer to true Kryptonian, he possessed more of the drawbacks to counter his advantages.

Black Adam saw the weakened young man and called the lightning down on him, ending that fight as well. Though Bane was down, and Grundy had multiple burns marks, the fight had gone better than anticipated.

"Let’s get them under lock and key," Alexi said, trying to catch his breath from the effort. Grundy grunted, and tossed both women on Black Adam’s shoulders, while Alexi took the man. He walked single-mindedly away from the house after that, going to vanish until he felt the need to join his allies once more. Circe descended from her watchful place as the men were preparing to leave, gathering Bane on a cradle of energy. Alexi looked toward the house as a boy of seven came walking out, obviously bearing the stamp of Terminator’s genes. It made him angry again, that the woman he counted on for so much had hidden such a major secret from him. He launched himself into the air, followed by Black Adam once the warrior of Shazam had learned his daughter was well.

"Lance, I said to stay inside," Canary said. "The fight’s over, but we have to clean up."

"It’s okay, momma." He smiled disarmingly, her own smile, it seemed, as he walked over toward Rose. "Isn’t it, Rose?" The young woman looked down at her brother with a wry smile for him, meeting his eyes. "Contact, sister!" the boy suddenly hissed.

"NO!" Canary threw herself forward, but her son slumped as Rose took on a heavily aggressive stance, both swords naked in her hands.

"Joey!" Slade roared, having turned at hearing that too haunting word. He had been inspecting Bane, helping Circe prepare him for transport. He ran toward his soon-to-be wife and her attacker, just as the women traded their first blows.

"Thank you, wicked stepmother, for honing the perfect weapon to exact revenge with!" Rose’s voice was deeper than normal, heavily salted with Joey’s rage and thirst for revenge.

"Leave my daughter alone!" Canary screamed, fighting without making eye contact. "Leave my family alone!" Her target was taken from her as Slade intervened, catching a sword blow with his own weapon. Father and daughter squared off in a deadly dance.

"I am so pleased to see you awake at last, Father," the eerie Rose/Joey said. "It will make ripping your family to shreds that much sweeter. But, so you know, that boy will live! I tasted his power, and it suits me just fine!"

"I won’t let you hurt anyone, Joey!" the father said, keeping his skill in check as much as he could and still effectively defend himself from her. Rose was highly trained, and on the meta end of humanity, but she had never been given the serum that made him and Dinah what they were. As long as he paid attention, he thought he could wear her down. "I’ll protect my family until my last breath!"

"Like you protected Grant?" The words stung, and Rose followed up to move quite unexpectedly inside Slade’s range, stepping full into a slashing cut that had been intended to push an expected blow away. Slade’s blood ran cold as he realized what he had done, and in that instant, his eye met Rose’s. "Contact," she whispered, falling limply to the ground.

When Rose fell, and Slade turned on her, Canary reacted instantly. She was fully on guard, her Cry ready to turn loose. She could hear Circe enchanting something, but knew the sorceress was over extended on energy. Black Canary was going to have to improvise. She met the first blows with the gloves she wore, slapping the blade down repeatedly. She had taken her training very seriously, and even if she could not beat Slade in a straight out fight, she could last long enough to let her mouth work.

"You think you have won? You think you can make him kill his daughter, then me? Then what; face his vengeance for the rest of your ghostly existence? Hiding in my son’s body won’t stop him from hunting you; he knows you can be removed!" she shouted at him, the power held in check. "Hurt him, he’ll hurt you back."

"You’re so right, Stepmother, but what if I make him run you through? How do you think he’d feel about that?" The possessed man laughed a horrible laugh.

"You can try!" On saying that, she made herself meet his eye, and knew she had his attention as he opened his mouth.

"Con…" He got no more out; his telltale word was swallowed as she blasted him with her Cry, just as his soul was exiting the man’s body.

"CANARY!" Circe cried out, seeing it unfold with her magical senses. The soul, just leaving the body of the man, encountered the sheer, unbridled power of her scream at its deadliest pitch, and shattered into a million shards. Slade dropped to one knee, as Joey had been unable to knock him out as he did his victims in leaving them. The sound died away, and Canary collapsed to her own knees, fully realizing what she had done. Slade, moving almost on autopilot, made it to his daughter’s side, to try and stem the blood flow. He did not want to think on anything that had happened, just yet, not when his daughter’s life hung in the balance.

`~`~`~`~`

The next Council meeting at CHAMP headquarters was full of Alexi’s handpicked choices. They were going to redesign themselves, with the key creators of the three Kryptonians still free, as well as Owlman’s heir. Alexi would remain leader, by a vast majority of the vote at their charter recertification. He had chosen Black Canary for a seat, but been refused, on her behalf, by Terminator. So, instead, he had invited the man, and Slade had accepted. Black Adam had refused his place as well, saying that he would turn a more vigilant eye to his region. Circe had accepted a place again, as had Maxwell Lord. The three remaining members were Sinestro, Doctor Crane, and Zoom.

Alexi surveyed those present and stood, in the middle of the table. "Friends, I asked each of you to take up the burden again because our latest debacle showed a shortcoming." He drew in a deep breath. "We did not effectively use intelligence that was there to be had."

"How is the Lady Terminator?" Doctor Crane asked, looking toward Slade.

"Recovering from her injuries at home. She has pledged the company resources to assisting CHAMP’s mission," he told them.

"And Black Canary?" That was from Zoom, asking the question preying on all their minds at last.

"She has resigned from the Reserve lists," Alexi supplied. "I accepted her resignation the same day she refused to sit on Council."

"Why? None of us…"Circe began.

"None of us blame her for her actions against my son," Slade said firmly. "But she feels as if she has killed. Even in the line of duty, with no other choice, it violates her ethics."

"We don’t know for a fact that he won’t reform," Alexi warned. "There is no way of knowing if your son is still out there." Slade inclined his head in understanding.

"We will interrogate the three that were captured at your home," Crane said. "And the prisoners your daughter’s teams took."

"It has been agreed that as a whole, we need to be more proactive, and preemptive," Alexi determined. "Yet we need a conscience. An outside source that watches over us. Black Adam agrees, and this is part of why he has chosen to remain aloof from us."

"Then we know our new roles," Sinestro said, looking satisfied. The others nodded, though none were very happy at all that had passed.

`~`~`~`~`

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [Two Sons](https://archiveofourown.org/works/513788) by [Merfilly](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Merfilly/pseuds/Merfilly)
  * [Hope in the Mirror](https://archiveofourown.org/works/513764) by [Merfilly](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Merfilly/pseuds/Merfilly)




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